1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for storing data in a virtual file system using write once read many (WORM) protection.
2. Background Art
Data storage systems are typically implemented to provide network-oriented environments as scalable and network-aware file systems that can satisfy both data storage requirements of individual systems and the data sharing requirements of workgroups and clusters of cooperative systems. One type of data storage system is a storage area network (SAN), which typically connects to a local area network (LAN) or other network through a server or servers. The server or servers are connected to storage devices within the SAN to allow remote clients to store/retrieve data to/from the storage devices.
Write once read many (WORM) technology is a data storage technology that allows information to be written to a medium only one time and prevents the data storage device from erasing, modifying, or overwriting the data. WORM media may come in various forms, including physical WORM media (P-WORM), factory precoded WORM provided on media (E-WORM) and software based WORM (S-WORM). WORM protection refers to the protection that prevents the user from erasing, modifying, or overwriting data on the WORM media once the data is written to the media.
Although WORM protection implementations that use either optical media, magnetic media or both have been used in applications that have been commercially successful, and provide some level of data security, data integrity and security can still lapse, including with some secure time reference for the recorded data. The lack of a secure time reference from the WORM protection system makes it possible to falsify dates of documents, allowing the falsified document to be written to the media using WORM protection without any secure time reference from the WORM protection system.